$_COOKIE

$HTTP_COOKIE_VARS [deprecated]

Description

An associative array of variables passed to the current script
via HTTP Cookies.

$HTTP_COOKIE_VARS contains the same initial
information, but is not a superglobal.
(Note that $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS and $_COOKIE
are different variables and that PHP handles them as such)

Changelog

Version

Description

4.1.0

Introduced $_COOKIE that deprecated
$HTTP_COOKIE_VARS.

Examples

Example #1 $_COOKIE example

<?phpecho 'Hello ' . htmlspecialchars($_COOKIE["name"]) . '!';?>

Assuming the "name" cookie has been set earlier

The above example will output
something similar to:

Hello Hannes!

Notes

Note:

This is a 'superglobal', or
automatic global, variable. This simply means that it is available in
all scopes throughout a script. There is no need to do
global $variable; to access it within functions or methods.

Cookies with the same name the first cookie is used. Clients will send cookies with longer path before cookies with shorter path. This comes from RFC 6265 which says "Cookies with longer paths are listed before cookies with shorter paths.". So you get the best matching cookie for your current request.